Multnomah County rebukes notion of rigged election

PORTLAND, Ore. -- There’s a lot of talk this election season about rigged voting.

Now that ballots are actually being counted, Multnomah County’s top election official is strongly affirming the integrity of the voting process.

Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott admits he’s rankled by those who don’t trust the system here in Oregon.

“Of course it does (bother me),” said Scott. “Because we do this every election. There’s nothing unusual about this election.”

Scott says Oregon’s vote-by-mail system offers a strong layer of initial security, and that all 36 counties in the state use the same playbook and is overseen by the Secretary of State.

“Every single ballot envelope has a unique identifier on it that is unique to that voter,” said Scott. “That number only gets assigned once, and it only gets assigned to that voter.”

Once inside the building, the signatures on the envelope are cross checked with the voter registration database by workers trained in forensic handwriting research. Then the ballots are opened by a bipartisan team before they’re scanned into a high security internal network with no connection to the internet. “It can’t be hacked remotely,” said Scott.

Outside the Multnomah County Elections building in Southeast Portland, voters were mixed in their opinions on the integrity of the system. Some believe it is completely trustworthy, others have their doubts.

“I still vote, I still believe that it’s going to be as sound as it can be, but I’m not 100% sure like I used to be,” said voter Palma Roberson.